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Throw out the injury to Mitchell for a second.

Why is it okay to spend big bucks on Milloy, when we could have made a real run for Spikes, Colvin, Claiborne or Godfrey for the same money?

Which position is more important? In which position do we have the most glaring weakness?

Thoughts?

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Linebacker is and was no doubt a big need for this team and I\'ll not say that these guys shouldn\'t have been persued but at this point in time if we get Milloy I\'m glad we have the money to do so.

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I think the only better pickup we could have made of the players you mentioned is Spikes. However, at the time that Spikes was available we had a lot more questionmarks as far as how much cap room we would need. Even if Mell wasn\'t injured, I believe we would all me hoping to sign Milloy. Except now Mell IS hurt so now we all know how bad we really do need someone like Milloy.



[Edited on 3/9/2003 by qball316]

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Gee, I guess spending ALL of our money early (Spikes, Colvin) doesn\'t seem like such a good idea now does it?
Now that we HAVE to fill a NEED it looks like we actually can. WOW!!!!
How would we be able to :casstet: afford Milloy now if we had spent too much earlier?
Give the front office guys SOME credit for God\'s sake.
And please give our roster a chance.

AT LEAST LET THEM PLAY A GAME FIRST!!!!!!!!!

[Edited on 3/9/2003 by roughneck]

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Very good point. It\'s OK to go after Milloy when Mitchell gets hurt but it wasn\'t earlier in the off-season when the need at linebacker was just as glaring. Why?

What happens if Darren Smith goes down. I\'ll tell you right now even with Grant AND Ruff, Smith getting hurt would be much worse than Mitchell. Bellamy is not great, but he is experienced, and at least you know what you\'re gonna get. That\'s not true about Ruff or Cie. Plus, everything I\'ve heard says that Smith is the qb of the defense out there, and he\'s the only thing keeping this group together. So back months ago, when we didn\'t know this about Smith, why was Ruff a good move? That\'s like us pursuing a guy like bellamy right now instead of Milloy.

[Edited on 3/9/2003 by WhoDat]

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WhoDat -- You never fail to amaze me. You talk as if the Saints are the only one that would be in trouble if a certain player went down -- and that is the problem with all of your negivtive posts. You constantly skew things around to make the Saints look bad.

For example : Let me do the Same thing with the \"Superbowl Champs\" Jon Gruden knew going into the off-season that if Brad Johnson went down that they would have no chance with Shawn King as a back-up quarterback. Well what does he do? He goes and drafts a rookie QB who he knew would take a couple of years to develop -- if he ever develops at all. He could have went after Jake Delhomme who I feel like could have done a nice job.

Ya see -- Probably not.

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Did the Bucs go into the off-season saying that QB was a major area of need? No they did not.

Did Tampa Bay go into the off-season after having let go of their starting QB? No they did not.

Did Tampa have one of the best cap situations going into the off-season? No, Billy, they did not.

So it\'s not like that - not really at all. Now, if Tampa had felt that Johnson stopped their team from succeeding (which regardless of what you think couldn\'t be farther from the truth - Gruden loves him), AND they had fired him, AND then they had only gone out and signed Shane Matthews, AND THEN King had beat out Matthews anyway, and in essence they had their backup from last season now as their starter b/c they didn\'t make a good enough effort to get a better player than the one they let go, THEN it would be just like what the Saints did at MLB. See how that works? Now, is my perception skewed or is yours?

Want to recap the areas of need going into the off-season and then discuss the moves we made to shore those up? Corner - Ambrose is the answer? MLB - Ruff\'s the guy we all wanted in January huh? Fenderson is the perfect backup for Deuce right? Areas of NEED going into the off-season.

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PS - I give the Saints staff credit for their moves with Rodgers, Conwell, and Jones. Those were all good moves. The jury is still out on Sullivan for me - we\'ll see. I\'m glad that they addressed the position, but I\'m still not sure he\'s worth the money. In any case, if I remember correctly, we went into the off-season feeling that MLB, DT, Safety, CB, TE, and a backup runningback were our biggest needs - roughly in that order. While they have made come good moves, we enter the season with questions about the ability of our players to step up at MLB, DT, Safety, CB, TE, and backup RB. They did not fill any one of those positions with a player that was undoubtedly THE guy. That\'s what upsets me. Can you blame me for that? Maybe all of these guys will come through - but until that happens, I\'m skeptical and yes, a little down on this team\'s off-season performance.

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Busy day. I couldn\'t wait to get home from work and comment on what I \'ve been reading on the board today.

I started this thread because I thought it odd how many of the folks who were so upset with those of us who criticized the Saints\' lack of foresight about the running back and linebacker positions got so excited about Milloy.

One the arguments that I heard in response to my RB and LB arguments was that we couldn\'t afford to buy every big name free agent that came across the board. Well how can we now afford to blow the cash on a thirty year old safety?

Injury, you say? As Whodat, I believe, pointed out, at least we have a former starter backing up at that position. What about LB? We had the chance to pursue a couple of big time players in their mid-twenties. We did not.

Would we even be as worried about the injury to Mitchell if we had decent linebackers?

You see, what we seem to be doing is making amends for something we didin\'t do earlier in the offseason: Realistically address problems on the defense.

I\'m not a negative Saints fan. I am a Saints fan. I\'ve rooted for John Forcade, for God\'s sake, so I\'ve earned my right to complain.






[Edited on 3/9/2003 by whowatches]

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Good points with that. We have cap money to spend now because we didn\'t spend it earlier, but what team lets a young and proven difference maker slip past and plug in a underachieving second stringer into that position because their plan is to save the money for a cap casualty in the event of injury. If that was the plan it is ridiculous. I\'m sure that\'s not what happened. We have cap money because we were beaten to the punch on free agents, negotiated good deals on the ones we got, and have dumped some big salaries in exchange for young talent. We didn\'t sit on this money in the event someone got hurt and we had to plug in a veteran.

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So basically here\'s what we needed when Haslett took over.

1. Quarterback.
2. Running back.( Rickey had to go.)
3. #1 receiver
4. # 2 receiver.
5. tightend.
6. 1 offesive lineman.
7. Back up running back.
8. left cornerback
9. right cornerback.
10. Free Saftey.
11. Strong saftey.
12. Middle Linebacker.
13. Weakside Linebacker.
14. Defensive End.
15. Defensive Tackle.
16. Kick Returner.


That\'s 16 players off the top of my head that we needed when he took over a 3-13 club. I\'m sure I could think of more. You see mistakes and I do too. But to think there would be no mistakes is unreasonable.

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OK, not to nit-pick here but, huh?

The guy who lead the league in rushing last year NEEDED to go when Haslett took over? Didn\'t he run for 1000 yards in ten games in haslett\'s first season?

Knight wasn\'t a good enough safety? A PRO BOWLER wasn\'t good enough? Then why did they make him the cornerstone of the defense last season? Defensive tackle? Kick returner? Chad Morton wasn\'t a good enough kick returner?

I dunno about that list - and let\'s try to remember that we\'re talking about THIS offseason, not the last three.

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WhoDat -- Absolutely Ricky Williams needed to go. He was only slightly better than average when he was with the Saints. He was more of a distraction than anything else. He turned it around last year in Miami -- Good for him -- But he needed to go.

I\'ll give you Sammy Knight and Chad Morton. They were good players.

Fact is he still had a big rebuilding job.

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Agreed about the last part - and maybe Ricky did need the change of scenery to step it up like he did, but 1000 yards in 10 games?? C\'mon. Hilliard was the last guy to rush for 1000 before ricky if I\'m not mistaken. The guy did it in 10 games! Yes, he never lived up to the hype here but I don\'t know if I\'d say he NEEDED to go. In any case, we\'ll see what Sullivan does and then decide if it worked out to our advantage or not.

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Come on guys give Ricky a break. He had a personality disorder that was diagnosed after he moved to Miami. Now on proper medication he is more the person he and everybody else wants to be. That\'s why he\'s better in Miami. At least I think so.